Garza plays Mozart this weekend

San Antonio Symphony Principal Horn Jeff Garza will be the featured soloist during this weekend’s Classics Series concerts. The program has changed since it was first published last February. The second half of the program originally included a Dvorak Symphony. But, in 2014, Sebastian Lang-Lessing will follow this year’s Brahms Festival with a Dvorak Festival. So, the Dvorak symphony is being reserved for the next festival. The revised program is:

In addition to the great horn concerto, the first piece is a rare treat for San Antonio audiences. It is one of the earliest minimalist works by America’s most prominent composer, John Adams. And, the “Enigma Variations” is one of the great showpieces for orchestra from the British repertoire written right at the end of the 19th century.

Hailed by the San Antonio Express-News as “a musician of rare authority,” Jeff Garza has been principal horn of the San Antonio Symphony since September 2004 and is sought after throughout the United States as a teacher, chamber musician, and orchestral performer. During the summer season, Jeff is principal horn of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon and the Festival Mozaic Orchestra in San Luis Obispo,California. Jeff has previously held principal positions with the Houston Grand Opera, Utah Festival Opera and has served as guest principal horn of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In January 2007, Jeff served as principal horn during the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s European tour, including performances in Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest. Past engagements also include positions with the New World Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, Nationa Repertory Orchestra, Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra and Houston Ballet Orchestra. Jeff is a member or regular guest performer with most of the leading chamber groups in South Texas including the San Antonio Brass, the Olmos Ensemble, Camerata San Antonio, SOLI Ensemble, Musical Bridges, and the Cactus Pear Music Festival. Jeff has appeared as a soloist with the San Antonio Symphony, the Britt Festival Orchestra and has been a guest artist at several music festivals, horn workshops and chamber music series, including Chamber Music International, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, the Southwest Horn Convention, and the Texas Music Festival. Jeff earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He is also an alumnus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts where he was awarded an Emerson Scholarship and the Young Artist Certificate, Interlochen Arts Academy’s highest artistic honor. Jeff is Adjunct Professor of Horn at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.